iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus: What's unique in Apple's newly launched phones

Apple iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus as the successors to the to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Both are scheduled to be released on September 16, 2016, with pre-orders beginning on September 9, 2016. The phones will release by October 7 in India with the iPhone 7 costing about Rs 60,000. On the other hand, customers in countries like the US, Australia, the UK and China will be able to buy the handsets beginning September 16.

Features the set the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus apart
For starters both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus come in two new colour variants - Black and Jet Black, the latter which is a darker shade with a high-gloss finish. This is along with the White, Gold and Rose Gold colours. Announcing the new phone, Cook described the iPhone 7 as the "best iPhone that we have ever created".

What is truly fascinating is that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be the first phones belonging to the iPhone family to be water and dust resistant. As a result of this feature, they aren't covered under liquid damage, according to the phone's warranty.

Apple has done away with the 64GB storage capacity. Instead, the IPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available in 32, 128 or 256GB storage options.

The iPhone 7 uses a touch-sensitive button with haptic feedback via Apple Taptic Engine in place of the longer uses a physical home button. It is also pressure-sensitive.

Both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will come with iOS 10, which introduces an update to Messages, the ability for its virtual assistant Siri to do more by working with apps, new ways to interact with redesigned apps. Both phones will be shipped with the OS pre-installed. The iOS 10 was announced at Apple's WWDC 2016 keynote on June 13, 2016, with release scheduled for September 13, 2016. iOS also improves and adds upon user experience system-wide including 3D Touch expansion, an updated lock screen, and "widget" support.

The iPhone 7 uses the Apple A10 Fusion system-on-chip, which consists of two low-power cores and two high-power cores. The A10 also features a hexa-core graphics chip capable of "console-level gaming". Both phone's displays have increased color gamut and brightness. The phones also come with stereo speakers with great sound quality.

The iPhone 7 includes a 12MP rear-facing camera with a quad-LED "True Tone" flash; its aperture was widened to f/1.8 while the standard-size model adds optical image stabilization - a feature that was previously exclusive to the Plus models. The iPhone 7 Plus also includes a second 12-megapixel telephoto lens, which can be used to achieve 2x optical zoom, and up to 10x digital zoom. The front-facing camera was also upgraded to a 7-megapixel sensor.

A significant change in the Apple iPhone and iPhone 7 Plus is the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack and was met with criticism skepticism, some of which based on the fact that a digital output does not show any notable improvement in sound quality. Furthermore, the user won't be able to charge the iPhone 7 and listen to music simultaneously and would have to carry around an adapter for what is purely a mobile device, diminishing its utility.

Apple's vice president Phillip Schiller, who announced the change, was mocked extensively online for stating that removing the headphone jack took 'courage'. The Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter will be sold by Apple as an accessory as well as being included with the device, with an MSRP of USD 9. Apple iPhone will also support AirPods - wireless Bluetooth in-ear headphones, as well as three new Beats headphone products. These however, won't be given with the phone and should be brought seperately. All these products utilize an in-house wireless chip known as Apple W1, which is designed to provide low-power Bluetooth operation and integration with iOS and macOS products.